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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION 



THE 



EVIDENCE OF SALVATION 



OR 



THE DIRECT WITNESS OF 
THE SPIRIT 




REV. EVERETT Sr STACKPOLE, D.D. 




NEW YORK: 46 East 14TH Street 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 

BOSTON: 100 Purchase Street 



177^^ 



\ 



aS\ 






Copyright, 1894, 

BY 

Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. 



The Library 

Ob CONHRESS 



WASHINGTON 



Typesetting and Electeotyping by 
C. J. Peters & Son, Boston. 



Press work by S. J. Paekiiiel & Co. 



Or 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Preface by the Author vii 

Chap. I. The Question Stated. — Reply of Ro- 
manism 3 

II. Witness of Conscience and of Fra- 
ternal Love 15 

III. The Indirect Witness of the Spirit . 25 

IV. Witness of the Word 33 

V. The Witness of Faith 43 

VI. Direct Witness of the Spirit ... 55 

VII. Mode of the Spirit's Witness ... 77 

VIII. What are the Conditions? .... 95 

IX. The Abiding Witness 105 



PREFACE, 



The subject matter of this book has ear- 
nestly engaged the writer's thought and study 
for a long time. His ideas thereon first found 
shape in a sermon published in 1878. During 
his stay in Italy as teacher in a Theological 
School, the importance of the subject for the 
training of native preachers and converts led 
to the publication of a tract entitled La Diretta 
Testimonianza dello Spirito Santo. Revival 
work in the home country has so clearly shown 
the need of a condensed manual on a subject 
of such vital importance to seekers and uncer- 
tain believers, that, at the request of the Boston 
Preachers' Meeting, before which a summary 
of the argument herein presented was read, its 
publication is now proposed. 

The principal works to which the writer is 
indebted are mentioned in footnotes. To name 

vii 



Vlll PREFACE. 

those that have been read during twenty years 
to little profit, or to positive harm, would fill 
many pages. The tendency of the times seems 
to be to substitute some other ground of as- 
surance for that which alone can satisfy the 
heart. That souls through knowledge of the 
truth may be saved from presumption, credulity, 
despondency, unsatisfied longing, despair, and 
unbelief is the writer's aim and prayer. 



THE QUESTION STATED. 



THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION ; 

OR, 

THE DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 



I. 

THE QUESTION STATED. 

Certainty is always the goal of the mind's 
endeavor ; to reach it the unwearied struggle 
of every earnest soul. The human mind is so 
constituted that it can never be at rest while in 
doubt. The desire to become certain of the 
truth of any proposition is the more ardent 
in proportion as the alleged truth affects 
one's personal welfare. Where immense con- 
sequences hinge upon the answering of a ques- 
tion in the affirmative or negative, we are very 
careful what reply we give. Now, no question 
can be more momentous than this, Am I saved 

3 



4 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

from sin ? A probable affirmative is not satis- 
fying. The issue at stake is too vast to allow 
any possibility of error. So long as there is 
even the lowest degree of possibility that one 
may be mistaken in the answer to that ques- 
tion, he cannot be contented. Alarm, begotten 
by the magnitude of the issue, outweighs the 
force of gigantic evidence, and extreme prob- 
ability still leaves him in harassing doubt. 
Opinions, beliefs, reasonings, authority of men, 
all fail to calm the fears of conscience and 
assure the sinner of salvation. Only the full 
assurance of faith, of hope, and of understand- 
ing 1 can remove every doubt and fear, and give 
perfect peace to the penitent sinner. 

And the lack of certainty becomes all the 
more annoying if the soul feels that further 
evidence may be attained for the settlement of 
the question. In the absence of such convic- 
tion, the person will partially succeed in recon- 
ciling himself to this state of uncertainty, and, 
under the plea of trusting God, try to make a 
virtue of necessity. Yet even then, though he 

1 Heb. x. 21 ; vi. n; Col. ii. 12. 



THE QUESTION STATED. 5 

may hold that certainty relative to this matter 
cannot be attained in this life, his instinctive 
desire often gets the better of his reason, and 
he is heard exclaiming, — 

" 'Tis a point I long to know, 

Oft it gives me anxious thought, — 
Do I love the Lord or no? 
Am I His, or am I not? " 

But a fully awakened soul, who believes that 
he may be made as certain of his salvation and 
divine sonship as of any other matter of knowl- 
edge whatever, will never rest short of that cer- 
tainty. He will continue to seek for light till 
every shadow of doubt has been blown away by 
the breath of the Spirit. 

Nor is this unrest of soul to be condemned 
as evidence of unbelief. Unbelief does not 
search after God, but hides away from Him. 
This yearning of the soul after a knowledge of 
God and divine things is rather evidence of a 
deeper consecration and a broader faith. Faith 
of itself can give no satisfaction. The object 
of faith's longing aspiration is always knowl- 
edge. We believe in order that we may know. 



6 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION, 

Unless knowledge succeeds to faith, we are 
nothing profited. Indeed, a consequent knowl- 
edge is the only sure test of the genuineness 
of the preceding faith. Though Abraham 
believed God, and it was accounted unto 
him for righteousness, he immediately asked, 
" Whereby shall I know ? " x and God gave 
him two immutable signs. The very longing 
for spiritual knowledge is awakened and inten- 
sified by the Holy Spirit, and hence is a glad 
prophecy of its own fulfilment ; for He who 
is the inspirer of prayer will surely be the 
answerer. It is not unbelief that occasions 
unrest in such cases. It is, rather, uncertainty 
of one's spiritual relation to God, and lack of a 
personal acquaintance with Christ as Saviour. 
The cause of the unrest and uncertainty is 
sometimes theological perplexities and errone- 
ous instruction received. 

And we observe that the class of Christians 
who are dissatisfied with their present religious 
experience, who are often uncertain of their 
relation to God, who are from time to time pos- 

1 Gen. xv. 8; Heb. vi. 17, 18. 



THE QUESTION STATED. 7 

sessed of a restless longing after a conscious- 
ness of their spiritual adoption, is by no means 
small. Those who constantly live in the sun- 
light of full assurance form the minority of pro- 
fessed Christians. We have noticed that in 
accounts of religious revivals two classes of 
converts are mentioned. One writer describes 
a recent revival thus : " There has been of 
late an unusual religious interest in our church. 
Its members have been newly aroused to a sense 
of their responsibilities as well as privileges, 
and as the result of their earnest co-operation 
with the pastor we trust several have been 
hopefully converted to God." Another writer 
thus describes a similar event: " During the 
past few weeks there has been a gracious out- 
pouring of the divine Spirit in . Under 

the zealous and efficient labors of evangelist 

B , souls have been saved every night. 

Scores have been soundly converted to God. 
The good work is still advancing." Here we 
have the hopefully converted and the soundly 
converted. We must make due allowance for 
the difference of mental and spiritual peculiari- 



8 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

ties of the writers. It is quite possible that the 
first revival was quite as powerful and perma- 
nent in its results as the second. Still, the 
phrases hint at a real difference in the experi- 
ence of converts. The latter know that they 
are saved ; the former hope so. Perhaps it is a 
"comfortable hope." In some cases it is not 
so comforting, being mixed with so much of 
doubt and uncertainty. It is a hope born of 
desire rather than of conviction, — a natural 
hope rather than one supernaturally inspired, — 
"a desire of good with a belief that it is attain- 
able," rather than a desire of good with the 
assurance that a foretaste of it has already been 
attained. It is not an anchor to the soul, sure 
and steadfast. 

We say the class called soundly converted 
know that they are saved. The word know is 
here used in its deepest significance, and not 
in the loose manner of popular speech. To 
know is to be certain of anything. Such cer- 
tainty is not an opinion, not an inference, not 
belief, however well grounded, not a conclusion 
reached by multiplied evidences ; but it results 



THE QUESTION STATED. 9 

from the testimony of one's own consciousness 
witnessing to a fact there made known. 

The question, then, is before us, How may 
one know that one is saved ? Let us endeavor 
to answer that question, examining the various 
evidences on which professed Christians are 
leaning. 

THE REPLY OF ROMANISM. 

The Council of Trent decreed that "no one 
can know with the certitude of faith, beyond 
the possibility of error, that he has attained 
the grace of God/' In denying the direct tes- 
timony of the Spirit in the heart of the believer 
the Roman Catholic Church is certainly self- 
consistent. If it were the privilege of every 
true penitent to be assured of his pardon by 
the voice of God in his soul, then the absolution 
of the confessor would be perfectly useless. To 
preserve the authority of the priesthood this 
Church has denied the promises of God. No 
man, in whatsoever office, can pardon sin. 
They admit this, but assert that God has made 
the priest, as confessor, the agent by whom the 



IO THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

divine pardon is announced to the penitent. 
Nevertheless, the priest says, "Ego te absolvo 
a peccatis tuis" (I absolve thee from thy sins); 
and the penitent leaves the confessional, quiet- 
ing his conscience with the words of the priest. 
In many cases his only reason for supposing he 
is forgiven is that the priest says so. If the 
penitent be well informed in the doctrine of his 
own church, he knows that the absolution of 
the priest is of no use unless there be genuine 
contrition, or at least attrition, in his own heart, 
together with a purpose to abandon all sin. He 
knows, too, that the validity of the absolution 
depends on the intention of the priest, and also 
that the priest has no authority to absolve un- 
less he has received it by uninterrupted apos- 
tolic succession from St. Peter. The better 
informed the penitent is the less assured he 
must feel in his heart of the divine forgiveness. 
The confessor knows neither the mind of God 
nor of the penitent. How, then, can he declare 
the remission of sins? He sometimes adds to 
the formula given above, in quantum possum 
(in so far as I am able) ; since certain sins must 



THE QUESTION STATED. II 

be confessed to higher ecclesiastical authori- 
ties before complete absolution can be granted. 
Moreover, by full absolution only the eternal 
penalties of sin are remitted, while the tempo- 
ral penalties must still be paid by the penitent, 
either in penances and purchase of indulgences 
or in the pains of purgatory. How different is 
all this from the full, complete, and unmerited 
pardon graciously bestowed upon whosoever 
offers the prayer of faith in Jesus' name ! 

How many have sought to stifle the voice of 
conscience and to believe that which the heart 
and reason deny ! How many, recognizing 
the uselessness of such a confession and ab- 
solution, go to the confessional only once a 
year or stay away altogether ! How many 
have honestly confessed to the priest, and have 
gone away with a burden still upon the con- 
science and with no joyous certainty of for- 
giveness in the heart ! We recall the testimony 
of a converted priest, who declared that he had 
been to the confessional hundreds of times and 
never felt sure of divine pardon, but the first 
time he heartily confessed directly to Jesus, 



12 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

our great High Priest, he felt so fully assured 
of the forgiveness of all his sins that he never 
went to the earthly confessor again. 

The folly of those in the Protestant Church 
who try by sophistical reasoning or dogmatic 
assertions to persuade seekers to believe that 
they are saved, is parallel to that of the Roman 
Catholic Church. No man has any authority 
or precise knowledge in the case. The 
preacher can only declare the general prin- 
ciples of salvation, the infallible conditions of 
forgiveness, and leave the seeker to deal 
directly with Christ, through whose inter- 
cession alone we all have access by one 
Spirit unto the Father. How many so-called 
converts have been led by false persuasions 
to doubtingly believe for a time that they 
are saved, only to awaken at last to the 
truth that they have been deceived ! Ac- 
cept no absolution that does not come directly 
from God to the soul. 



II. 

WITNESS OF CONSCIENCE. 



II. 

WITNESS OF CONSCIENCE. 

One of the evidences of salvation often 
presented to seekers is put in the form of 
a question, " Don't you feel better ? " The 
church and pastor may press around an un- 
certain or despondent penitent with this in- 
quiry. Well, of course he feels better in 
some sense. In another sense he feels worse, 
being burdened with anxiety and longing. His 
conscience has always told him that he ought 
to be a Christian, that he ought to consecrate 
himself to the service of God, and now that 
he is honestly endeavoring to do his duty, it 
cannot be otherwise than that he feels ap- 
proval taking the place of disapproval. This 
is evidence that he is going in the right di- 
rection, but is not satisfactory proof that he 
has reached the goal. Every conscientious 
act done by any one, whether Christian or 

*5 



1 6 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

not, receives its reward. It is a movement 
in the right direction, and if earnestly con- 
tinued will eventually lead to God. It is 
Holland who says, — 

" I hold this thing to be grandly true, 
That a noble deed is a step towards God, 
Lifting the soul from the common sod 
To a higher air and a purer view." 

Every good thought, word, or deed is a 
movement heavenward ; and the observance 
of the law of conscience, if persisted in, will 
prove what the Mosaic law was to the Jews, 
a " schoolmaster to lead to Christ." The 
more closely one endeavors to fulfil the moral 
law, the more he will discover his weakness 
and inability ; and this will lead him to seek 
help beyond and above himself. Only let 
the morality be thorough, and not superficial, 
extending to inward thought as well as to 
outward act. Such a moralist will be found 
inquiring of the Master, "What good thing 
must I do in order to inherit eternal life ? " 
Contenting one's self with doing about right is 



WITNESS OF CONSCIENCE. I J 

the dangerous thing. So many seem to be 
satisfied with being pretty good. 

The fact, then, that one in some respects 
feels better because he does what he knows 
to be his duty, and commences seeking the 
Lord, is no evidence that he has found Him. 
A large number of seekers stop here. They 
are encouraged to think that this modified 
approval of conscience is proof of their con- 
version. They pray, read the Bible, go to 
church, talk in meeting perhaps, and make 
many good resolves, trusting, almost without 
knowing it, to their own ability to keep them. 
They bring forth some fruit meet for repent- 
ance, soon get tired of the unequal contest 
with their spiritual foes, realize unrest instead 
of peace, get discouraged, and so, it is said, 
" backslide " within a few weeks or months. 
No ! they do not backslide ; they were never 
converted. They have all the time been under 
the law and not under grace. Some keep on 
with the outward formalities of godliness, 
knowing nothing of the power thereof. A few 
of this class, in whom the power of will and 



1 8 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION, 

conscience is great, continue for some time, 
answering pretty nearly to a low type of Old 
Testament saint, living by the deeds of the 
law with a remembrance of sins made every 
year continually, until they get new light, and 
hence make a new departure and get into the 
dispensation of the Holy Spirit, or a reaction 
sets in, and they become hardened, bitter scep- 
tics and disbelievers in experimental religion. 
They think they have weighed Christianity in 
the balances and found it wanting. The diffi- 
culty is that they have never properly put it to 
the test. There has not been a complete sur- 
render to God, and a hearty acceptance of 
Christ as Prince and Saviour. 

WITNESS OF FRATERNAL LOVE. 

Another ground of assurance frequently 
brought to the attention of the uncertain 
seeker of salvation is the argument of St. John, 
"We know that we have passed from death 
unto life because we love the brethren. ,, This 
may be a comforting assurance to such as have 
once hated the people of God, and felt no ad- 



WITNESS OF CONSCIENCE. 1 9 

miration for a life that is holy and just and 
good ; but any one who has been accustomed to 
reverence his conscience, and recognize moral 
goodness, feels no opposition in his heart to 
Christians as such. He loves some of the 
brethren, and some he does not admire partic- 
ularly. A goodly company of upright but un- 
converted men and women are frequenting our 
churches, and would that there were more of 
them ! They have kept all the commandments 
from youth up, thanks to the general influence 
of Christianity. They admire goodness wher- 
ever revealed. They in some degree love the 
genuine followers of Christ. Wherever they see 
an honorable, upright, conscientious, generous- 
hearted, noble man, they feel attracted toward 
him, whether he be a professed Christian or 
not. Such admiration and love are only inten- 
sified by conversion. In these cases there is no 
such radical change in their affections as indi- 
cates the beginning of a new life. Whenever, 
on the other hand, they see a narrow-minded, 
stingy, bigoted, selfish man (and the Church 
holds such in her membership, and we dare not 



20 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

say they are not babes in Christ), they cordially 
dislike him, whether he be a professed Chris- 
tian or not. Conversion only intensifies this 
feeling also, though with the dislike should be 
mingled pity and a desire to make the disagree- 
able one better. Then, too, identification of 
interests will always create a bond of fellow- 
ship more or less strong. It is perfectly natural 
that, having cast in one's lot with the Church, 
having identified one's self publicly with it, one 
should feel some measure of brotherly love, or 
at least regard, which may be mistaken for 
Christian love. So one regards complacently 
members of his lodge or club. 

There are degrees of love. How much must 
one "love the brethren" in order to know 
thereby that he is a child of God ? Let us 
look a little deeper into this assurance upon 
which so many feeble Christians are leaning 
as almost their sole prop. What did the apos- 
tle mean by it? To "love the brethren" in 
his day was to associate with them, and share 
with them the ignominy and persecution of the 
world. More, it was to hazard one's life for 



WITNESS OF CONSCIENCE. 21 

the brethren and sometimes actually to lose it. 
John goes on to give two tests of this fraternal 
love. 1 (i) As Christ laid down His life out of 
love to us, so we ought to lay down our lives 
out of love to them. (2) Fraternal love should 
prompt us to consider the needs of our brother, 
and freely and generously assist him, not by 
giving him a miserable pittance that will barely 
keep him out of the poorhouse, but by sharing 
with him as we would that he should do unto 
us in reversed circumstances. 

Now say, my Christian friend, you that are 
relying on this text as the chief assurance of 
your salvation, who bolster up your weak faith 
by frequently repeating it, do you love the 
brethren well enough to generously relieve 
their needs ? Can you suffer shame and per- 
secution with them ? Could you die for one 
of them if love demanded it ? If so, the gra- 
cious Lord will grant you exceeding comfort 
from this assurance. You will have no need 
or inclination to examine the evidences of your 
conversion. Yet ordinarily this evidence alone 

1 I John iii. 16, 17. 



22 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

is not sufficient to allay all doubts and fears. 
It must be accompanied by some other and 
better assurance. It is far better to follow 
John on through this chapter, as he ascends 
by successive steps in the argument, till he 
arrives at the climax of assurance, " And hereby 
we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit 
which he hath given us." 



III. 

THE INDIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 



III. 

THE INDIRECT WITNESS OF THE 
SPIRIT. 

If a conscious possession of the fruit of the 
Spirit be relied on as an evidence of present 
salvation, this will often be found to be defec- 
tive and unsatisfactory. Let us turn to Paul's 
list * of such fruit, and test ourselves thereby. 

The fruit of the Spirit is love. Do I love 
God ? Few persons will admit that they do 
not. It frequently happens that the less de- 
voted one is, the more readily he will reply in 
the affirmative. But the trembling soul thinks 
of God's unutterable love to him, and hesitates 
to give his own feelings such a name. He sings, 

"My love so faint, so cold to Thee, 
And Thine to me so great." 

Besides, love, as an emotion, cannot always be 
recognized in the consciousness ; and when one 

1 Gal. v. 22, 23. 

25 



26 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

searches his heart to find love there, he seems 
to search in vain. "I ought to love God with 
all my heart," he says ; "I am afraid that I do 
not. Besides, I cannot love an unknown being. 
I think I should love Him if I only knew Him 
personally. Would that God would reveal Him- 
self to me ! " And if he concludes that he loves 
God in any degree, is he conscious of God's 
love shed abroad in the heart ? It is not enough 
to believe that he is loved. He wants to realize 
this truth in his soul. This test does not give 
full assurance. 

The fruit of the Spirit is joy. "Ah me!" 
says the desponding soul, "how little joy I 
feel ! A faint ripple of spiritual gladness at 
long intervals ! It never swells to the high 
tide of bliss that joy in the Holy Spirit, joy 
unspeakable and full of glory, should give. 
And often my spiritual condition is the very 
reverse of joy. This test does not dispel my 
doubts." 

Isaiah prophesies that " with joy ye shall 
draw water out of the wells of salvation ; " 
and Christ says, "Ask and ye shall receive, 



THE INDIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT 27 

that your joy may be full." Such joy no man 
taketh from you. It may coexist with sorrow 
and pain. It is oftener calm than ecstatic. 
Its manifestation depends largely upon natural 
disposition, circumstances, and state of the 
body ; yet it is the privilege of the Christian 
believer always to have it deep down in his 
soul. Such joy is his strength. And yet how- 
many believers or half-believers feel and mani- 
fest no joy in the Lord. Their faces and tes- 
timonies are gloomy, or they' are silent partners 
in the church. This results in part from a 
studied depreciation of religious feeling or 
emotion as an evidence of salvation and source 
of usefulness. We are repeatedly cautioned 
to pay no attention to feeling, and to walk 
by faith. Such instruction may be useful at 
times ; nevertheless, the genuine believer will 
be joyful in God, and it is of the utmost impor- 
tance that he should be. 

The fruit of the Spirit is peace. "Well, 
I have a measure of peace sometimes. My 
conscience condemns me only now and then. 
Mine is a passive rather than an active peace. 



28 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

It is not the peace that floweth like a river, 
and that passeth understanding. No ! mine is 
quite understandable. It is more difficult to 
understand why I do not have greater and 
more constant peace, such as I hear other 
Christians speak of. And then how often I 
feel all stirred up, irritated, provoked, discon- 
tented, and unrestful. I cannot say there is 
therefore no condemnation.'' So this test fails 
also. 

The fruit of the Spirit is long-suffering and 
gentleness. " How little patience I have ! 
How hard it is to wait ! How difficult to 
keep silent under provocation and prevent the 
uprising of angry impulse ! How many occa- 
sions I have to regret hasty words and tem- 
pers ! And if the manifestation of impatience 
be repressed, I am painfully conscious that it 
exists in my soul. Surely I have little fruit of 
the Spirit in this regard. " 

And so if we go on to consider the manifes- 
tation of the fruit of the Spirit in "goodness, 
faith, meekness, and temperance," the soul 
seeking assurance is led to deplore its lack of 



THE INDIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT 29 

these rather than to rest satisfied with them. 
It bemoans its little goodness, its lack of faith, 
its harshness of temper and expression, its 
many imperfections, its " crooked paths," its 
" leaving undone the things it ought to have 
done," etc. Then, too, these are the " fruit," 
not the fruits, of the Spirit. They are undi- 
vided. One cannot assure himself that he is 
a Christian if he has one or more of these 
good qualities and not the whole. He may be 
gentle, patient, and kind by nature, and yet be 
very selfish. Sentimentality may usurp the 
place of love, and lead to no self-sacrifice. In- 
difference and religious stupidity may be dig- 
nified by the name of peace. Presumption 
and credulity readily pass under the guise of 
faith. Patience is with some only insensibility 
or studied policy. Moreover, Wesley says, and 
there is abundance of experience to confirm 
the statement, that a degree of all the fruit of 
the Spirit may be experienced by the preve- 
nient grace of God long before conversion. 
What degree, then, must a soul reach in order 
to rest assured of its salvation ? Wesley an- 



30 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

swers, "Let no one rest in any supposed fruit 
of the Spirit without the witness. It is at 
the peril of our souls if we do." x At most, 
only a degree of probability can be reached on 
such evidence, but never a certainty. 

1 Sermons, vol. i. p. ioo. 



IV. 

WITNESS OF THE WORD. 



IV. 

WITNESS OF THE WORD. 

Much account is made of this by recent 
evangelists, yet it is the most slippery founda- 
tion on which one can stand. It is usually put 
in the form of a syllogism. The major premise 
is this : God has promised salvation on certain 
conditions. The minor premise is : I have 
complied with those conditions. The conclu- 
sion logically follows : Therefore I am saved. 
The fallacy is in the minor premise. Who is 
to say when the conditions have been fulfilled. 
The human heart is above all things deceitful, 
always prejudiced in its own favor. How are 
we to tell whether our so-called repentance and 
faith are of a character acceptable to God. 
There is a repentance that needeth itself to be 
repented of, and our supposed faith may be 
only presumption. It is self-evident that He 
alone who has established the conditions is 

33 



34 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION'. 

competent to decide when they have been met ; 
and his decision we can never know unless He 
declare it unto us. The general principles of 
salvation may be found in the written Word, 
but my salvation or yours is nowhere revealed 
in the Bible. The Word gives no testimony 
whatever with reference to that event. If I 
ever learn that for a certainty, it must be by 
special revelation to me. The canon of revela- 
tion is not completed for me till God has ex- 
pressly signified to my soul that I am His child. 
The uncertain seeker of salvation is not to be 
accused of the terrible sin of doubting God's 
word. He firmly believes the conditional prom- 
ise ; he is in doubt as to whether he has met 
the condition, and no one but God can decide 
that question. 

Many poor souls are misled at this point by 
unwise advisers. They are pressed to give 
their assent to this and that proposition, and 
then they are argued into the belief that they 
are saved. " You do come to Jesus, don't 
you?" — -Yes." 

-And He has promised to receive all who 
come." — -Yes." 



WITNESS OF THE WORD. 35 

"Then you are saved. Praise the Lord." 
Or the argument runs thus : " You do put 
yourself upon the altar." — " Yes." 

" And the Scripture says that the altar 
sanctifieth the gift. Do you believe that?" 
"Yes." 

"Then you are sanctified." 
" But I don't feel any evidence of it." 
" Is not God's word evidence enough ? Be- 
ware lest you commit the damning sin of unbe- 
lief. Believe that you are saved and you are." 

Thus Christianity is belied and belittled. In- 
fidels have a right to sneer at this process. Its 
fallacy is evident to unprejudiced minds. The 
seeker is made his own judge, and justifies him- 
self. Belief or intellectual assent to a proposi- 
tion is substituted for confidence in a personal 
Saviour, expressed by utter abandonment to 
Him. It matters not that peace, joy, or shout- 
ing, should follow such a mental feat. The be- 
lief of an agreeable falsehood will produce hap- 
piness. It is doubtless true also that God in 
infinite mercy saves many sincere but ill-advised 
seekers, not in consequence of their syllogistic 



36 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

belief, but in spite of it. To be sure, it is far 
easier for the evangelist to thus sophistically 
argue a seeker into the kingdom of heaven, 
than to persuade him to enter through self- 
crucifixion and abandonment to Christ. 

Moreover, if there were no fault in either of 
the premises of the above syllogism, the conclu- 
sion would rest only on the same grounds as the 
major premise. No more can be drawn out in the 
conclusion than has been put into the premise. 
A syllogism does not add anything to the force 
of evidence. Thus the conclusion that the 
seeker is saved rests upon the various evidences 
of Christianity, by means of which the truth of 
a special divine revelation is proved. The con- 
scientious believer who is inclined to examine 
the foundations of his faith, in order to reply to 
him who asks a reason for the hope that is in 
him, if he has been taught to prove his salva- 
tion in the syllogistic manner above indicated, 
is always propping up his faith with the histor- 
ical, speculative, and probable evidences of 
Christianity, omitting that proof that has im- 
measurably more weight than all the rest com- 



WITNESS OF THE WORD. 37 

bined ; viz., the experimental. 1 It matters not 
what proofs may be urged in favor of any al- 
leged truth, if it fail when it is put to the cru- 
cial test of experiment, it must be abandoned. 
If there be not a positive and satisfactory expe- 
rience to be arrived at by compliance with cer- 
tain biblical conditions, then Christianity has no 
stable basis. It is the experience of the Church, 
and not her argumentative theology, that has 
given her life and power. The Christian reli- 
gion is not a system of blind belief. It is not 
built upon faith alone. It is a square, business- 
like arrangement between God and the human 
soul. He says, in substance, comply with cer- 
tain conditions and you shall experience certain 
results ; and know that you have met the condi- 
tions because the results are experienced, but 

1 See the able work of Prof. L. F. Stearns on the Evidence 
of Christian Experience, p. 311. "It seems to me that the 
place of supreme importance among the evidences of Christianity 
must be conceded to the evidence of Christian experience. It 
is the vital member of the organism of proofs, in which the life 
of the whole is concentrated as in no other. It is, to change 
the figure, the keystone of the arch of evidences. We can 
conceive of the other evidences as to be dispensed with under 
certain circumstances; but this is absolutely indispensable." 



38 THE EVIDENCE OE SALVATION. 

do not conclude that the results are reached 
because you fancy you have met the conditions. 
Suppose some physical law were announced 
on the authority of an eminent scientist. He 
declares that the law is based upon certain ex- 
periments, and that whoever will perform those 
experiments shall realize such and such results. 
What would be thought of a person who, after 
having performed a delicate course of experi- 
ments without witnessing any special result, 
should publish his confirmation of the law an- 
nounced ? Would such confirmation have any 
force of evidence ? Would he show his faith in 
the scientist by believing that the result had 
occurred without any other reason for his belief 
except that the scientist had so promised ? No, 
this would be mere credulity. He would rather 
show his confidence in the scientist by care- 
fully and repeatedly performing the experiment, 
watching all the while with breathless interest 
to see the predicted results. So one shows his 
faith in God, not by believing he is saved after 
he thinks he has met the conditions, but by 
repetition of experiment, by importunate prayer, 



WITNESS OF THE WORD. 39 

seeking earnestly the fulfilment of the promise. 
The Scriptures and reason nowhere require 
one to believe that he is saved. That is not a 
matter of belief at all, but of conscious realiza- 
tion. Facts are not believed. We may be- 
lieve a statement with regard to a fact, but 
the fact itself is not believed, but experienced. 

Bishop Taylor well illustrates this point. A 
sick man, full of aches and pains, goes to a 
physician and states his infirmity. The phy- 
sician unrolls his diplomas, signed by several 
medical faculties, and shows credentials and tes- 
timonials from reliable persons. " There," he 
says, " do you believe these statements, and 
have you confidence in my ability and willing- 
ness to heal you now ? " 

The patient assents. 

" Then you are cured." 

" But," says the sick man, " I don't feel any 
better." 

" Never mind that," the doctor replies ; " it 
is not a matter of feeling at all. It is wholly a 
matter of faith." 

Just so say those who urge the seeker to 



40 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION 

believe that he is saved. " You have salvation 
in the promise," they say. This is true of 
every sinner. The problem is to take salvation 
out of the promise, and to put it into the heart 
of the penitent seeker in conscious experience. 
It is quite important to distinguish between the 
promise and the fulfilment of the same. 



V. 

THE WITNESS OF FAITH. 



THE WITNESS OF FAITH. 

The same subtle error has been recently 
advocated by distinguishing the " witness of 
faith" from the "witness of the Spirit." The 
former is declared to be the "conscious reception 
of salvation," and the latter the "conscious real- 
ization of salvation " * It would puzzle a meta- 
physician to tell how anything can be con- 
sciously received without at the same moment 
being realized. The consciousness that one 
possesses a thing is itself the realization of the 
fact. The extent and implications of such pos- 
session may be realized more and more with 
developing experience. Salvation is always re- 
alized to some extent the very moment it is 
received. The acceptance of proffered salvation 

1 See Faith Papers by Rev. S. A. Keen, D.D., p. 42. The 
spirit of the book is excellent, but it is saturated with this harm- 
ful error. 

43 



44 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

is by obedient faith, and the realization im- 
mediately follows through the witness of the 
Spirit. 

There is no " witness of faith." The phrase 
is a contradiction in terms. Faith witnesses to 
nothing. In this case, it is only the soul's 
persuasion of itself that it is saved. It is not 
even faith in the true sense of that word, but 
simply intellectual assent to an error, or it may 
be to a truth resting on evidences not clearly 
perceived and formulated. Usually the earnest 
seeker has other and better evidences than the 
"naked word" on which he believes he is 
saved, but he has not sufficiently analyzed his 
experience to be able to state them. If he will 
reflect, he will see that his condemnation has 
all been removed before he could believe that 
he was saved, and this is the real evidence of 
his pardon. Desponding believers, those who 
have the faith of a servant, but not the faith of 
a son, and even unsaved inquirers, may some- 
times be argued or sung into a happy frame of 
mind for the time by means of specious error 
as well as by truth. Such joy is not the fruit 



THE WITNESS OF FAITH. 45 

of the Spirit, but arises from a law of the 
mind, that whatever is received by the intellect 
has its corresponding effect in the sensibilities. 
In the Scriptures, "joy in believing'' and " joy 
in the Holy Ghost " are the same, because the 
" believing " has been made possible by the 
direct witness of the Spirit. Such " believing " 
is filial confidence in the heavenly Father, and 
results from the reception of the Spirit of 
adoption. In this sense, it may be said that 
faith, i.e., personal confidence in the Saviour, 
is itself a feeling or emotion of the soul. But 
believing that one is saved is not a feeling. It 
is merely an intellectual act, and, even when it 
is an erroneous belief, will be followed by agree- 
able emotions. The heathen devotee of India 
chants the praises of Ram with similar feelings, 
and sometimes weeps for joy. The theory we 
are opposing really undermines the basis of 
supernatural religion, and reduces Christian ex- 
perience to a series of intellectual acts, with 
corresponding emotional results. To thought- 
ful minds, it is the most subtle, and therefore 
the most dangerous, foe to Christianity. The 



46 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

Christian religion differs from every other in 
this, that it offers to every believer a divinely 
wrought certainty in his soul that his sins are 
forgiven. We do not say that no heathen can 
attain this, but that his system of religion does 
not promise it. When we base our salvation 
upon anything else than this divine testimony 
in the soul, we have sunk down to the plane of 
heathen philosophies. 

The illustration of receiving a great inheri- 
tance through faith in legal documents, and of 
the realization of the same through actual hand- 
ling of the wealth inherited, is not pertinent. 
The documents are not a promise, but an uncon- 
ditional legal transference. The same fallacy ap- 
pears in the much-used illustration of " Faith's 
Bank-Note." It is a promise to pay on demand, 
and is as good as gold coin. The possessor of a 
bank-note is not worrying because he does not 
feel the touch of the equivalent gold. We 
might add that he does not go to the bank for 
the gold, because the official paper is a more 
convenient medium of exchange. The promises 
of God are said to be payable at sight, to the 



THE WITNESS OF FAITH. 47 

order of whosoever believeth. Just here the 
difference appears. The bank-note is uncon- 
ditional, just as good for a sinner as for a saint. 
The promises of God are conditional, never 
cashed if one asks " amiss. " They are not a 
convenient medium of exchange in the spirit- 
ual world, that may be passed from one person 
to another, irrespective of character. A condi- 
tional note is good for nothing till the con- 
ditions are met. It is true (and this is what 
has given currency to the illustration) that 
after one has been assuredly taken into partner- 
ship * with God, then he may carry about in his 
pocket the exceeding great and precious prom- 
ises, and reckon himself to be so much the 
richer ; but before his adoption he is a spirit- 
ual pauper. He has no warrant in any promise 
to believe that he is adopted. That is a historic 
transaction between him and the Father. When 
he has attained unto the faith of a son, he may 
exclaim, " All things are ours." 

If the soul be saved, and have the "witness 
of faith," what real need is there of a further 

I John i. 3. . 



48 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

" witness of the Spirit " ? Is the first witness 
not to be trusted ? Is not this really a putting 
of the cart before the horse, of the fruit before 
the tree, of the indirect witness before the 
direct ? And whence comes this " witness of 
faith ? " Is it from God, or is it self-originated 
in the seeking soul ? In the latter case, it 
is a false witness ; in the former, it is a quiet 
form of the direct witness of the Spirit. The 
so-called " witness of faith " is often nothing else 
than the gentle persuasion of the Spirit, and 
may, or may not, be followed sooner or later 
by more demonstrative exercise of the Spirit's 
power. This has also been miscalled " salvation 
by promise " and " salvation by power." The dis- 
tinction has no foundation in fact. Actual sal- 
vation is always by power, however gently felt. 
Salvation by promise is only potential, not yet 
realized. 

Some have pressed into the service of this 
erroneous theory Mark xi. 24, "What things 
soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that 
ye receive them, and ye shall have them." 
The Revised Version makes the statement still 



THE WITNESS OF FAITH 49 

stronger, " Believe that ye received them." 
Here Dean Alford's comment is the best of 
all. " The reception spoken of is the determi- 
nation in the divine counsels coincident with 
the request — believe that when you asked you 
received, and the fulfilment shall come." Ob- 
serve that this is a promise made to believers, 
and not to unsaved sinners. The context 
shows that it is an exhortation to personal 
confidence in God. In order to its exercise, 
one must be aided by the inwrought assurance 
of the Spirit, that the thing asked for is in ac- 
cordance with the will of God. The mountain 
will not be removed except in answer to in- 
spired faith. The Spirit must help our infirm- 
ities, and make intercession within us, according 
to the divine will. 1 This is something vastly 
different from the drawing of a conclusion 
from premises and resting upon it. Watson's 
comment is well worth our notice, "An ill use 
has sometimes been made of this passage, as 
though it meant that while praying, whatso- 
ever we believe, that is, persuade ourselves 

1 Rom. viii. 26, 27. 



50 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION 

that we receive, we do receive, — an absurdity 
and self-contradiction/' 

Some advocates of this error, too, claim to 
have found support in Wesley's well-known 
three steps of justifying faith. He says there 
must be : — 

i. A divine evidence and conviction that 
God is able and willing to save. 

2. A divine evidence and conviction that He 
is able and willing to save now. 

3. To this needs to be added a divine evi- 
dence and conviction that He doeth it. 

The phrase "divine evidence and convic- 
tion " is Wesley's accurate translation of the 
Greek word cAeyxo? found in Heb. xi. 1. "Now 
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen." The mistake 
made by many is in supposing that according 
to Wesley this divine evidence and conviction 
in the three successive steps of faith rest on 
the same grounds ; i.e., scriptural truth or 
promises. He never taught this. The evi- 
dence of the first two propositions is found in 
the gospel ; that of the third is the direct wit- 



THE WITNESS OF FAITH 5 I 

ness of the Spirit in the soul. Wesley himself 
calls the use made of his definitions by some 
recent teachers " flatly absurd." * 

A really converted person may have errone- 
ous notions about the witness of the Spirit, 
and so get into despondency. He is not con- 
demned, but uncertain. Such an one may be 
gladdened by grasping the promises of the 
written word. But to suppose that he has 
been praying, obeying, conscientiously living 
ten or twenty years, and all the time unsaved 
because his intellect did not assent to some 
theological dogmas or conclusions drawn from 
promises of Scripture, is to dishonor God. 
"What doth the Lord require of thee, but to 
do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk 
humbly with thy God?" 2 Oh, let us worship 
the great God, who will save penitent sinners 
in spite of intellectual perplexities. 

It may be admitted that the various evi- 
dences hitherto mentioned may afford some- 

1 See Watson's Life of Wesley, pp. 150-155, where the whole 
question is fully and clearly treated. 

2 Micah vi. 8. 



52 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

times a probability of various degrees that one 
is saved. The probability may become so 
great as to exclude at times all actual doubt, 
especially in a mind not constitutionally in- 
clined to investigation ; and a good-natured, 
easy-going, unaggressive Christian may be the 
result. Some minds can content themselves 
with a probability almost as well as with a cer- 
tainty, but they are not of the noblest type. 
Then, too, it takes a vast amount more of evi- 
dence to assure some than is required by 
others. There are those who assert dogmati- 
cally that they know a thing, when the truth is, 
their asserted knowledge is a mere opinion or 
fancy, resting upon no evidence whatever. But 
all the evidences previously mentioned com- 
bined can never produce complete certainty of 
one's present salvation ; and in so weighty a 
matter the soul ought not to be satisfied so 
long as additional evidence may be secured. 



VI. 

DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 



VI. 

DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

We return to the question, How may one 
know that one is saved ? Must this be left a 
matter of probable conjecture? Will God 
adopt a son into His spiritual family and not 
give him definite notification of the fact ? Will 
a Father never reveal himself to His child ? It 
cannot be. Infinite power, prompted by in- 
finite love, and guided by infinite wisdom, will 
find a way of manifestation. God has promised 
to give to the penitent believer absolute knowl- 
edge of his salvation, — knowledge the most 
perfect that the human mind is capable of 
receiving. The direct witness of the Spirit 
comes into the soul as a spiritual intuition. It 
is an authentic, first-hand declaration from the 
Father Himself. It is a divine notification from 
the court of Heaven immediately to the believ- 

55 



56 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

ing penitent. There is no intervening medium 
of communication. He requires no instrumen- 
tality whatever. Knowledge is ordinarily con- 
veyed to the human mind through the avenues 
of the bodily senses. My thought expresses 
itself in spoken or written word, in visible signs 
or picture, in the waving of a handkerchief, or 
in the gentle pressure of the hand. Thus 
through sight, hearing, or touch, thoughts and 
emotions corresponding to my own may be 
awakened in the soul of another. But we 
must not suppose that the eternal Spirit is 
confined to such means of communication. In- 
deed, we should naturally expect Him who is 
Spirit to act upon our spirits independently of 
such media, and we recognize such action in 
the conscience. The Spirit of God comes into 
direct contact with the spirit of man. " Ye 
in me and I in you." The trusting soul is 
the home of God, and God is the eternal 
home of the soul. The thought of it is 
enough to make our " spirit beat its mortal 
bars." Faber must have realized this truth 
when he wrote : — 



DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT $7 

" Eut God is not so far away 
As even to be near; 
He is within, our spirit is 
The home He holds most dear. 

Down in earth's duskiest vale where'er 

My pilgrimage may be, 
Thou, Lord, wilt be a ready home, 

Always at hand for me." 

And so He who formed the eye, the ear, the 
hand, and dwells within us, can surely impress 
a truth upon us without the aid of any bodily 
senses. Thus He whispers of condemnation 
unto fear, or of forgiveness unto peace. What 
is this witness ? No one can adequately tell. 
Even those who have received it cannot de- 
scribe it. Like many other things, it can be 
known only experimentally. All who have 
attempted a definition unite substantially in 
saying that the witness of the Spirit is a persua- 
sion or conviction wrought directly in the mind 
of the believer, that his sins are forgiven, and 
that he is now a child of God. 

The Holy Spirit, acting upon the moral con- 
sciousness of the sinner, works conviction of 
sin with a feeling of condemnation and "a cer- 



58 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

tain fearful looking for of judgment." The 
same Spirit, acting under changed conditions, 
produces in the consciousness of the believer a 
conviction of pardon, whereby he cries, " Abba, 
Father ! " The result is peace, rest, a sense of 
security, love, comfort, joy, and all the fruit 
of the Spirit. 

The apostle, writing to the Galatians, 1 says, 
" Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the 
Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, 
Father." The same Spirit that rested and 
abode upon Christ, when the voice said, " Thou 
art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," 
has been promised to abide in the heart of 
every true believer, whispering constantly, 
"Thou art my beloved child in whom I am well 
pleased ; " and the spontaneous response of the 
heart is, " Thou art my heavenly Father, whose 
will is my delight." The Hebrew word, Abba, 
was the joyous exclamation of the Jewish con- 
verts when first they realized their true relation 
to God. 

The same apostle, writing to the Ephesians, 2 

1 Gal. iv. 6. 2 Eph. i. 13. Cf. 2 Cor. i. 22. 



DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 59 

says, that having believed in Christ, they were 
" sealed with that Holy Spirit of the promise 
which is an earnest of our inheritance." This 
seal is the mark of royal ownership, which no 
man is allowed to break. It is the soul's con- 
firmation that it belongs to God. The earnest 
is a part payment in kind, made in advance as 
pledge that the full inheritance will be given in 
due time. It is a foretaste of the bliss of 
heaven ; for nothing better, in time or eternity, 
can be conceived than to be filled with the Holy 
Spirit. The definite article in this and several 
parallel passages specializes this promise of the 
Father as the greatest he has made. It is the 
gift that makes real and valuable all other gifts. 
To the Thessalonians the gospel came " not 
in word only, but also in power and in the Holy 
Ghost, and in much assurance/' * Therefore 
were they filled with joy, and from them 
sounded out like a trumpet the word of the 
Lord throughout Macedonia and Achaia. The 
saints at Corinth are declared to be " temples 
of the Holy Ghost." The Colossians possessed 
1 1 Thess. i. 5. 



60 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

the €7rtyva)0"ts, the full or complete knowledge of 
the mystery of God, even Christ in them the 
hope of glory. 1 The Church at Rome was cau- 
tioned that " if any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ," i. e., the Holy Ghost, as the context and 
parallel passages plainly show, " he is none of 
His." 2 The strangers scattered throughout 
Asia Minor rejoiced in believing "with joy un- 
speakable and full of glory." 3 John says, " He 
that believeth on the Son hath the witness in 
himself ; " viz., the inwrought revelation that 
"God hath given to us eternal life, and this 
life is in his Son." 4 Paul's first question to 
certain believers at Ephesus was, " Did ye in 
believing receive the Holy Ghost ? " 5 Not 
some time after ye believed, as certain ones 
will have it who press an erroneous transla- 
tion into the service of a false theory ; but 
did ye, when ye publicly professed your faith 
in Christ by baptism of water, also receive the 
baptism of the Spirit ? 

1 Col. ii. 27; iii. 2. 2 Rom. viii. 9. 3 1 Pet. i. 8. 

4 1 John v. 10, II. Cf. John xvii. 3. 

5 Acts xix. 2. Cf. ii. 38. 



DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 6 1 

These citations are sufficient to show that, in 
the days of the apostles, no one was consid- 
ered converted if he were destitute of the 
direct witness of the Spirit. The experience 
has been known by many throughout the his- 
tory of the Church. We have seen how, with 
the establishment of the confessional, the 
Roman Catholic Church came to deny this as 
the common privilege of believers. High Cal- 
vinism, with its doctrine of unconditional elec- 
tion and final perseverance of the elect, was 
cautious enough to maintain that only a few 
elect of the elect might have the direct witness 
of the Spirit, or full assurance ; since if all the 
elect should receive it, there would be a clear 
division of the sheep from the goats in this life, 
and it might lead to practical antinomianism. 
Methodism was a great revival of this doctrine ; 
and her success in every land has been propor- 
tioned to the fidelity with which it has been 
preached, and to the faith with which it has 
been accepted and translated into experience. 
Wesley testifies that ninety-nine out of a hun- 
dred of those converted under his ministry 



62 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

received the direct witness of the Spirit. By 
most evangelical theologians it is now allowed 
to be the common privilege of believers. 

The direct witness of the Spirit has been 
called a spiritual intuition. By an intuition is 
meant a necessary, universal, and self-evident 
truth. That every effect must have an ade- 
quate cause is such a truth, immediately per- 
ceived by all who have come to years of 
understanding. That two and two make four, 
or that the shortest distance between two 
points is a straight line, is a mathematical intu- 
ition, admitted by all who have the capacity to 
think. That there is a difference between right 
and wrong, and that we ought to do the right 
and reject the wrong, are moral intuitions rec- 
ognized by all morally responsible persons. 
These truths need no proof, and cannot be dis- 
proved. They are at once assented to without 
argument or evidence. So one knows immedi- 
ately and without reasoning when he feels con- 
demnation for sin, and he knows equally well 
when that condemnation is removed. Its re- 



DIRECT WITNESS OE THE SPIRIT 63 

moval is due to an inwrought conviction that 
his sins are forgiven. He cannot explain that 
conviction, neither can he rid himself of it 
except by voluntary transgression of known 
moral law. In its clearest manifestations the 
testimony of the Spirit affords knowledge un- 
doubted and undoubtable. It is the testimony 
of all who have been baptized with the Holy 
Ghost, that they can no more doubt their 
pardon and divine sonship than they can doubt 
the shining of the noonday sun when his beams 
fall full upon the vision. How may one know 
when he has received the direct witness of the 
Spirit ? The reply has been well made, " We 
do not need lanterns to see the sun rise." 1 

We do not mean to affirm that the divine 
testimony is always equally clear. It may be 
obscured by reason of physical infirmities, 
temptations, weakness of faith, or ignorance of 

1 See Love Enthroned, by Rev. Daniel Steele, D.D., 
p. 226. This book is remarkable for its spiritual insight. On 
p. 3S2, and in one or two sentences elsewhere, is advocated the 
erroneous view of justifying or sanctifying faith repudiated in 
this book. Dr. Steele has since publicly and repeatedly cor- 
rected his error. 



64 THE EVIDENCE OE SALVATION. 

gospel promises. The corruptible body presses 
down upon the soul. Sickness may disorder 
the mind and produce spiritual darkness. Pre- 
conceptions and erroneous notions may dim 
the light that is in us. The philosophers, or 
a small minority of them, have disputed all the 
intuitions. Some have argued that among 
other intelligences two and two may make 
five instead of four, but such a supposition does 
not disturb ordinary calculations. Though the 
invisible things of God are already seen in 
the works of creation, yet there always have 
been those who do not like to retain God in 
their knowledge. Hence they become vain in 
their reasonings, and their foolish hearts are 
darkened. 1 Thus the light that is in them is 
changed into darkness. 

"The owl-eyed atheist, 
Sailing with obscure wing athwart the sky, 
And hooting at the glorious sun in heaven, 
Cries out, Where is it? " 

One must meet the conditions in order to 
receive even intuitional knowledge. In spite 

1 Rom. i. 19-25. 



DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT 65 

of the darkness of the wilfully and ignorantly 
blind, it remains true that "we have received, 
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which 
is of God, that we might know the things that 
are freely given to us by God." 1 

But may not one be mistaken, and think some 
other experience to be that afforded by the 
witness ? He may be. Doubtless some are. 
Various emotional experiences, an unusually 
strong excitement, an abnormal state of mind, 
a feverish imagination, might be thought to be 
the direct witness of the Spirit ; and hence the 
necessity of having also the indirect witness, 
that is, the fruit of the Spirit revealed in con- 
sciousness and manifested in daily life. The 
lack of the latter proves that the former is 
fallacious. We must try the spirits whether 
they be of God. The infallible test is a Christ- 
like life interpreted by the Christ-like. Many 
subjective experiences might be mistaken for 
the direct witness, but the direct witness in its 
fulness cannot be mistaken for anything else. 
It is of a unique character and undoubtable. 

1 1 Cor. ii. 12. 



66 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

One may doubt, after he has lost it through 
sin, whether he ever had it; but while he pos- 
sesses it, to doubt his divine sonship is an im- 
possibility. 1 He sings with Faber, — 

" I know not what it is to doubt; 
My heart is ever gay." 

Perhaps an illustration, taken from Arthur's 
" Tongue of Fire " and somewhat modified, 
may make this point a little clearer. Suppose 
a prisoner to be confined from birth in a dark 
dungeon, where only the faintest light has ever 
shone. He has the power of sight but has 

1 "This change is known directly, and the certainty attach- 
ing to it is a certainty that has the sanction of all science. The 
Christian can no more doubt it than he can doubt his own exist- 
ence. His certainty respecting it is complete. His experience is 
knowledge pure and simple. ... I wish to emphasize the fact 
that this basal element in Christian experience does not admit 
of doubt, but carries with it the highest validity. And in order 
that it should be valued at its true worth, it is not needful that 
the Christian should know the day and moment of his conver- 
sion. The fact of the change is all-sufficient. Even the child 
brought up from the first within the Christian fold knows that 
there is a life within which is altogether different from the sin- 
ful life of nature." — Prof. Stearns's Evidence of Christian 
Experience , p. 212. 



DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 67 

never had the opportunity to exercise it beyond 
the limits of his dark cell. He has been told 
of the sun, and his latent power of seeing cries 
out for gratification. He exercises his imagina- 
tion about the nature of the sun and how he 
shall feel when he beholds it. Yet no one can 
describe the sun to him so that he can get any 
conception even faintly resembling it. His 
fancy compels him to form mental images, yet 
he knows on reflection that they must be far 
from the reality. But never mind. The real- 
ity will be more splendid than the imagination. 
Do not urge the seeker to form no pre-concep- 
tion of the blessing sought. You may as well 
tell him to stop thinking about the subject that 
is dearest to his heart. God can do exceeding 
abundantly above all that he can ask or think. 
The heart of man has never conceived the 
things that are prepared for those who love 
God. Well, the prisoner is promised that on 
a certain day he shall be led forth to see the 
sun. Bright visions fill his soul. He cannot 
sleep, or direct his thought to any other subject. 
If weariness overcome him, his dreams are 



68 THE EVIDENCE OE SALVATION. 

filled with fancies about the sun, and often he 
wakes with his heart overflowing with desire. 
At length the day arrives. He is led forth 
into a room where a taper is burning. "Is 
this the sun ? " he asks in a half-disappointed 
tone. It is beautiful, but does not satisfy his 
hopes. He is led on into a more spacious 
apartment where a bright lamp is shining. "Is 
this the sun ? " he asks more eagerly and hope- 
fully. He feels not quite satisfied, though he 
delays to look upon it with pleasure. He is 
led on into a large covered court where an 
electric lamp sends forth a glare of light. " Is 
this the sun?" he cries excitedly. His previ- 
ous dreams are realized, and yet the question 
reveals a doubt in his mind. Presently a broad 
door is flung open and the beams of the noon- 
day sun fall through an unclouded sky full 
upon him. He leaps for joy and shouts, "This 
is the sun." No longer he makes an inquiry 
but a positive assertion ; and, doubtless, the 
counter assertions of all the world combined 
would not convince him that he had not seen 
the sun. 



DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT 69 

So the imprisoned soul, " fast bound in sin 
and nature's night," has heard wonderful tales 
told of Him who is the Light of the world. A 
desire to see Him is awakened, and he com- 
mences groping blindly in the dark. Some 
glimmering ray of hope shines upon him from 
the prophetic word, relieving his self-despair. 
He gives heed to it as to "a light that shineth 
in a dark place," and at first wonders if this be 
the sun. As he advances by consecration and 
resultant faith, some deep emotional experi- 
ences are granted him, and perhaps he rests 
satisfied for a time, thinking he has attained 
all. But the Spirit does His officework, and 
leads him on. At some Bethel or Pisgah or 
Mount of Transfiguration he gets a heavenly 
vision, or a glorious prospect is unrolled, or his 
eyes are dazzled with celestial light. For the 
time he is contented, and says, " I'll build me a 
tabernacle and abide here." But in some never 
to be forgotten day comes his personal Pente- 
cost, and the Sun of righteousness in His inef- 
fable splendor rises on his spiritual vision with 
healing in His wings. He is raised up to sit 



70 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

with Christ in the Heavenlies. Doubts and 
fears and the " restless, unsatisfied longing " 
have flown away. He has arrived at " the unity 
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son 
of God." * 

Now all the other evidences heretofore men- 
tioned come to him with multiplied force, and 
make assurance doubly sure. He feels the 
love of God shed abroad in his heart, and a 
responsive love welling up within. A new 
love for the brethren is felt. Joy ebbs and 
flows like the ocean. Peace, like a mighty 
river, flows on, ever broadening and deepening, 
toward the sea. The promises of God are yea 
and amen. He lives on the confines of heaven. 
Such fruit of the Spirit, called the indirect wit- 
ness, necessarily follows the direct witness, and 
may easily be distinguished from the modified 
approval of conscience and from the first fruits 
of the Spirit that arise from prevenient grace. 
The direct witness is the tree ; the indirect is 
the fruit of it. One cannot exist without the 
other, but logically and in fact the tree pre- 

1 Eph. iv. 13. 



DIRECT WITNESS OE THE SPIRIT 7 1 

cedes the fruit ; and as in the natural world the 
abundance of fruit is determined by the size and 
life of the tree, so the clearness and fulness of 
the abiding Comforter determine the measure 
and constancy of the fruit of the Spirit. If you 
would be happy and useful, be filled with the 
Spirit. 

And here we deem it important to correct a 
current error. To " receive the Holy Ghost," 
to be " filled with the Holy Ghost," to be " bap- 
tized with the Spirit," according to New Testa- 
ment phraseology, mean substantially the same 
thing, and have reference to the manifestation 
of the Spirit's presence in the soul of the 
believer, and it may be also to beholders. An 
unconscious reception of the Spirit is a delusion 
and a snare. An unfelt, unrecognized guest is 
no Comforter. As the omnipresent Spirit He 
must be conceived as existing in every one, yet 
unrecognized because sinners will not listen to 
His voice, or they attribute the manifestations 
of His presence to other causes. He " comes 
in " to make His abode in us when we recog- 
nize His influence. In various ways and degrees 



72 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

He reveals His presence to believers ; and when 
His power or blessing is specially felt, a per- 
son is said to be " baptized" or "filled" with 
the Holy Ghost. So the apostles and early 
Church were repeatedly " baptized " with the 
Spirit. The distinction between the baptism 
and a baptism is a discovery of superficial 
exegesis. The greatest spiritual blessing of 
a man's life thus far he may call his personal 
Pentecost, but he mistakes and robs himself if 
he concludes that nothing greater can follow. 
In religious experience one needs in some sense 
to forget the things behind, and stretch forth to 
better things before. Just as the convicting 
Spirit dwells in the breast of every sinner, yet 
at times manifests His power in a special man- 
ner, and then we say the sinner is " under 
conviction," so the witnessing Spirit dwells 
constantly in every true believer, yet at times 
reveals His presence in special ways. Then the 
believer is said to be baptized or filled with- the 
Spirit. The more frequent such baptisms, the 
better. They are needed to produce the high- 
est results. Recollections of the past will not 



DIRECT WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT 73 

long drive one's chariot wheels. And so it 
happens that some inefficient Christians can tell 
of a marvellous baptism of power — away off in 
the past. All fruitage is on recent growths. 

It is to be noted that the indirect witness 
adds nothing to the certainty of pardon and 
adoption already given by the direct witness. 
The soul that receives the seal of the Spirit 
knows immediately that it is saved without re- 
flection and without awaiting results. The Holy 
Spirit first testifies to our spirit, and then con- 
jointly with our spirit. A convict receives intel- 
ligence of his pardon from the governor of the 
State. This may produce at once peace, love, 
joy, and may lead to a great change in outward 
conduct. Now, how does he know that he is 
pardoned ? By his emotional experiences or out- 
ward conduct ? Not at all. He knows it only 
by the declaration of the governor personally, or 
officially made known to him. For reassurance 
he examines the legal document, just as Bun- 
yan's Christian looks at the scroll which he 
carries in his bosom. If he loses this his joy 
and peace have flown. The fruit of the Spirit 



74 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

must be felt and manifested, otherwise the pro- 
fessor of religion and his acquaintances must 
infer that he is either deceived or a deceiver. 

The two witnesses are related as faith to 
works. A man is justified by faith alone, but 
not by a faith unaccompanied by good works 
{fide sola sed -non solitarid). Good works fol- 
low of necessity a true faith. They are not the 
condition, but the effect, of justification, and 
prove the genuine character of the faith. Just 
so the believer is sealed and assured by the 
Spirit alone, and the fruit follows. The ex- 
ternal fruit, such as gentleness, goodness, tem- 
perance, etc., may or may not convince the 
unbelieving world that the believer is really 
sealed by the Spirit. The holiest Person that 
ever lived was crucified as a malefactor. The 
subjective fruit, i.e., love, joy, peace, faith, may 
be obscured during the time of trial, while the 
direct witness is resplendent in the soul. 



VII. 

MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 



VII. 

MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 

The statements made concerning the indubi- 
table character of the Spirit's testimony in the 
most remarkable states of religious experience 
may serve to indicate the goal toward which 
the seeker may press forward. It would be a 
mistake to suppose that all Christians at their 
conversion receive an equally clear and satisfy- 
ing assurance of divine acceptance. The Spirit 
divideth to every one severally as He will, and 
deals with no two souls precisely alike. This 
infinite variability may depend upon the age, 
temperament, religious instruction, health, and 
previous manner of life, of the seekers, as well 
as upon the life-work for which the Spirit is 
preparing them. Many persons have been ex- 
ceedingly perplexed and distressed by seeking 
some strange, miraculous experience, such as 
they have heard or read of. They expect to 

77 



jS THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

see visions or to dream dreams; to hear a 
mysterious voice speaking words of assurance; 
to sensibly realize God's presence ; to be filled 
with supernatural joy ; to feel the transports of 
divine love ; to have the soul flooded with light 
and song ; to behold all nature transformed, so 
that the birds sing more sweetly and the trees 
and fields shine with the glory of the celestial 
city. We doubt not all these things have been 
experienced, but they are exceptional and are not 
necessary to full assurance. It is the extraor- 
dinary experience that gets into books, and is 
retailed in meetings of prayer and testimony. 
There is such a natural fondness for what is 
surprising and wonderful ! So many would like 
to be converted like St. Paul; and some who 
have heard of the Philippian jailer are waiting 
for an earthquake before they will seek sal- 
vation. Such overlook the experience of an- 
other convert at Philippi, Lydia, "whose heart 
the Lord opened, that she attended unto the 
things spoken by Paul," and who modestly 
referred her divine acceptance to the decision 
of the apostle, saying, " If ye have judged me 



MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 79 

to be faithful to the Lord." 1 Notice, too, the 
conversion of the Ethiopian, who simply be- 
lieved the expository preaching of Philip, was 
straightway baptized, and " went on his way 
rejoicing." 2 No earthquake here or bright 
light from heaven ; only a providential meeting 
with an itinerant preacher. 

Let us illustrate. Here is a man who for 
years has hardened his heart against the plead- 
ings of the Spirit, and has wilfully and repeat- 
edly broken the commandments of God. In 
some crisis of his life he is led to moral reflec- 
tion, and realizes profoundly his sinfulness and 
lost condition. His soul is burdened with 
guilt and condemnation. He prays, and prays, 
till he gets to the point of self-despair. Then 
he looks beyond himself for help. The truth 
begins to dawn upon him that Christ died for 
sinners. He lays hold upon it with the energy 
of a drowning man, and exclaims, " He died for 
me." It seems to him as though that truth 
had been expressly revealed to him from 
heaven. His burden of condemnation falls 

1 Acts xvi. 14, 15. 2 Acts viii. 26-39. 



80 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

off instantly. He feels as though he could fly. 
It is a great deliverance, a transition from dark- 
ness into marvellous light. If he has a brilliant 
fancy, he may relate his experience thrillingly, 
and his rhetorical figures may be taken by 
some of his hearers for plain matter of fact. 
He tells of the conversation he had with the 
Devil and then with the Lord, of a vision of the 
cross, heaven or hell, 1 etc. 

Now, in most books on religious experience, 
as well as in revival hymns and preaching, the 
conversion just delineated is the typical one, 
and the conclusion too often reached is that 
every convert should have a similar experience. 
Here is the way one author describes conver- 
sion : " When first the soul emerges out of 
the darkness of the horrible pit ; when, after 
a long night of sorrow and fear and almost de- 
spair, it receives through the Spirit of adoption 
the happy assurance of God's forgiving love, 
— the evidence is usually so bright and clear 
as to be without a cloud." 2 No wonder, with 

1 See Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 

2 The Witness of the Spirit, by Rev. D. Walton, p. 137, a 
very clear and valuable book. 



MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 8 1 

such antecedents ; but many Christians have 
never passed through such preliminary stages, 
and it is not necessary that they should. So a 
familiar hymn runs, — 

" From the darkness of sin and despair, 
Out into the light of' His love." 

Such expressions are perplexing to conscien- 
tious young people reared in Christian homes. 
They never felt the darkness of sin and de- 
spair. They have not been in the " horrible 
pit," and it is unwise for those who have not 
had the experience of the Psalmist to use such 
extravagant language. The Scriptures deal 
principally with the experiences of adult sin- 
ners, and appeals are made to those who are 
sunken in the vices of heathenism. The trans- 
ition from " blood guiltiness" to " cleanness of 
heart," from heathen darkness and vice into 
the light of gospel truth and purity, should not 
furnish the type of conversion for such as have 
been influenced from infancy by the Christian 
religion. For the average attendant of our 
Sunday-schools and churches, we need a gos- 



82 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

pel founded on Christ's invitation to children, 
" Of such is the kingdom of heaven," and 
upon the narrative of the young man whom 
He loved for his morality and earnestness of 
spirit. 1 

Let us look at another type of Christian ex- 
perience. Here is a young lady who has been 
trained up in a Christian home and in the 
Sunday-school. She has never doubted the 
fundamental truths of the Bible, has lived con- 
scientiously, and sometimes, if not regularly, 
prayed in secret. In some revival she is per- 
suaded that she ought openly to confess her 
desire and purpose to be a Christian. After 
some hesitation she does so, and perhaps asks 
the prayers of Christians. Something within 
whispers approval. There is peace, rest, and a 
sense of security in her soul. The experience 
is not entirely new, but in larger measure than 
ever felt before. As she goes on in the per- 
formance of Christian duties, and contemplates 
more and more "the truth as it is in Jesus," 
peace, love, joy, and victory over sin abound. 

1 Mark x. 17-22. 



MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 83 

Her experience does not appear marvellous to 
herself or to others ; and when she compares it 
with the testimony of the one above mentioned, 
she may be led to doubt whether she be really 
converted. Perhaps she never needed to be 
converted. Perhaps from infancy she has grown 
up to pray, and to love and serve Christ. Sam- 
uel, John the Baptist, or Timothy may furnish 
the type of her experience. Instead of lament- 
ing that her Christian experience is not like 
that of an old hardened sinner at his conversion, 
she ought to thank God that it is not. Yet it 
is her privilege to pray for the Comforter, and 
this will satisfy her spiritual longings. If she 
will calmly reflect a little, she will not be able 
to doubt that her sins are all forgiven. She 
has such an inwrought conviction, and this is 
all that is essential to the witness of the Spirit. 
Now, there are all varieties of experience 
between the extreme cases mentioned. Some 
surrender to God quickly, and the witness 
comes instantly ; others yield gradually, and 
the transition in experience is not so sudden. 
Some abandon themselves to Christ by a des- 



84 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

perate exercise of faith ; others believe slowly, 
after much examination of evidence. The in- 
wrought conviction that one is saved is with 
some largely intellectual ; with others it is 
more emotional. Some trust tremblingly, wav- 
eringly, examining themselves more than look- 
ing unto Jesus. Others can say : — 

" Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus, 
I've lost sight of all beside; 
So enchained my spirit's vision 
Looking at the Crucified." 

A youth of fifteen years throughout one day 
was specially serious. Nothing in his external 
conduct revealed it. He was meditating a great 
question of duty, and coming to the most im- 
portant decision of his life. He had lived con- 
scientiously in a Christian home, and always 
indefinitely purposed to be a Christian. He 
felt no burden of condemnation, but a certain 
unrest, uncertainty about the long future, and 
indecision. The question of a public expression 
of the purpose to be a follower of Christ and 
of identification with the Church was weigh- 
ing upon his mind. Toward night, at a well- 



MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 85 

remembered spot, he settled the question by say- 
ing silently in his soul, "I will." That instant 
there came over him such a sense of peace, 
rest, and security as has never since been felt 
more truly, though more intelligently and deeply. 
He did not suppose then that he was converted. 
He thought he must go to the church and 
"go forward for prayers," and then something 
strange would take place in his soul. In this 
he was disappointed. Three weeks of such 
seeking brought nothing new but perplexities. 
Job's "interpreter, one among a thousand," 1 
was not there. For many years he struggled 
along, living on the right side of doubt, fear- 
ing God and working righteousness, hungrily 
reading everything he could get on religious 
experience and the office-work of the Spirit, 
cross-examining hundreds of other Christians, 
and praying sometimes all day and all night. 
He studied, thought, and prayed his way out 
into the sunlight of full assurance. All this 
was his providential preparation to write this 
little book, in order that others may not follow 

1 Job xxxiii. 23. 



86 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

his weary course. He had the witness of the 
Spirit at the very beginning, but was led into 
perplexities and uncertainty by erroneous in- 
terpretations of Scripture and experience, and 
by vain theologizings on the part of so many 
others. 

NO DELAY ON GOD's PART. 

It is important here to add a caution against 
the teachings of those who say, Yield all to 
God in faith, and wait for the witness of the 
Spirit, which for some unknown reason may be 
delayed for hours, days, or weeks. Such have 
confounded the witness of pardon with some 
special manifestation that afterward may be 
given. Those who have read Finney's " Auto- 
biography " remember that the great revivalist 
was led by the Spirit into the woods to pray. 
He continued some hours in prayer, and all 
at once found himself bounding over the hill 
toward the village, saying in himself, " If I 
ever do get converted, I will preach the gos- 
pel." He already had all that is essential to 
the witness of the Spirit, but did not know how 
to interpret his changed state of heart, till the 



MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 87 

baptism of the Holy Ghost for service was 
given to him the following night. It is not an 
unusual thing to hear Christians who have re- 
ceived a marvellous uplift in religious experi- 
ence declare that they were never converted 
before. The former experience has now with 
such no glory, by reason of this new glory that 
excelleth. Yet it is unwise and misleading to 
depreciate the still, small voice in favor of the 
rushing, mighty wind. God is just as surely 
in the former as in the latter. 

It is a dangerous doctrine to teach that God, 
after the conditions have been fully met, will 
delay to forgive a penitent soul or to notify him 
of the fact, in order, as some say, to test and 
develop faith. Suppose his faith does not en- 
dure the test. In what state is the soul then 
left ? Has it been saved and lost without 
knowing either ? The saying of the colored 
boy is here pertinent, that he wouldn't like to 
get religion and not know it, for fear he might 
lose it and never miss it. 

The worst feature of the doctrine is that it 
encourages many to believe they are saved 



88 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

before they have fully met the conditions of 
salvation. They cull out any statement they 
please from the Bible, call it a promise, and 
rest upon it. Their salvation is only their 
good opinion of their own performance. This 
is unconscious Phariseeism. If innocently led 
into this delusion by others, in a short time 
they find out their mistake, and seek salvation 
by power. " Only believe and wait for the wit- 
ness ! " Waiting for it in idle indifference will 
never bring it, and waiting for it with longing 
desires may make the heart sick through de- 
ferred hope. No ! God does not so tantalize 
His children. The writer of this was for a 
time led to accept and advocate this error, and 
it produced great perplexity and unrest. The 
error arises from not separating the non-essen- 
tial, occasional accompaniments from the in- 
wrought conviction of pardon that removes all 
sense of condemnation. Whenever the condi- 
tions are fully met, instantly pardon is adminis- 
tered, and the burden of guilt is removed. 
Just as the door of a bank-safe opens easily to 
one who knows and uses the combination, so 



MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 89 

mercy's door swings wide to him who tries 
to open it in the prescribed way. " Knock and 
it shall be opened unto you." 

The subject will be made clearer if we indi- 
cate the successive steps in arriving at salva- 
tion : — 

1. Conviction of sin, common to all men, but 
intensified by moral reflection and contempla- 
tion of scriptural truth. The agent of convic- 
tion is the Holy Spirit, who utilizes a multitude 
of occasions. The result is a profound sense 
of guilt and condemnation. 

2. Repentance, or turning away from all sin, 
and hearty surrender to God. It is a change of 
purpose and practice, expressed by a decision 
of the will, and should be distinguished from 
penitence, which has reference to the emotions, 
and is ordinarily more felt after conversion. 

3. A divine conviction wrought directly by 
God in the soul, or through the instrumentality 
of gospel truth, that He is able and willing now 
to pardon sin. 

4. In consequence, the seeker casts himself 



90 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

upon the mercy of God, however revealed, and 
trusts for pardon. This is justifying faith. 

5. A divine conviction wrought, not through 
gospel truth, but directly by the Spirit, that He 
doeth it, i.e., doth now forgive all sins. 

As a result of this, the essential and constant 
elements of subjective Christian experience are 
as follows : — 

1. Freedom from condemnation. The sense 
of guilt is removed, and the believer realizes 
that " there is' therefore now no condemnation 
to those who are in Christ Jesus. " 

2. Hence arises " peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ/' the measure of which 
may vary according to disposition and circum- 
stances. 

3. Rest of soul, instead of the previous un- 
rest produced by sin, doubts, and^ uncertainty. 

4. A sense of security, in place of previous 
fear of death and dread of the judgment. 

5. Filial confidence in the heavenly Father. 
This may be increased by grasping the exceed- 
ing great and precious promises. 



MODE OF THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS. 9 1 

6. Love to God and man recognized and 
measured by cheerful self-sacrifice in order to 
please God and serve humanity. 

7. Habitual victory over sin, while the power 
of temptation is decreasingly felt. These feel- 
ings constantly characterize the experience of 
one who has " faith in God," and lives in a state 
of justification. In addition, he may have at 
times ecstatic joy, spiritual manifestations, bap- 
tisms of light and power, and third heaven ex- 
periences. These are not to be sought for. It 
is better to fix the eye of faith upon Christ 
rather than upon any subjective experience. 
Seek to be like Him and to be filled with the 
Spirit. Sometimes it needs to be definitely in- 
cluded in the consecration that you will thank- 
fully accept whatever experience God may 
choose to give, leaving all within and without 
to His will. 



VIII. 
WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS? 



VIII. 

WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS? 

How may one attain unto the knowledge of 
sins forgiven ? The answer has already been 
briefly stated, yet may need to be more fully 
unfolded. The conditions are two : entire sur- 
render to God, and simple confidence in Christ 
the Saviour. There must be first of all com- 
plete submission of the will to the will of God. 
Opposition to the divine will is the very es- 
sence of sin, and must be fully given up before 
pardon is possible. Here is the principal diffi- 
culty with those who have been trained up to 
believe the truths of the Christian religion. 
There is some darling sin that they do not 
wish to abandon, or some duty that they shrink 
from performing. They say, anything but that. 
They parley with the convicting Spirit, and seek 
to make compromises. They try to tutor their 
consciences, and to persuade themselves that 

95 



g6 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

this little selfish indulgence is not sinful, or 
that they can somehow escape from that dis- 
agreeable duty. They give themselves the 
benefit of the doubt, and assert that they have 
yielded all so far as they know or to the best of 
their ability, when a faint suspicion to the con- 
trary is lurking in the soul. They do not re- 
spond with a hearty yes to all the test questions 
presented by the Spirit in times of prayer. 
They want to be Christians, but they can't give 
up certain amusements, or forsake certain asso- 
ciations, or publicly confess Christ by baptism 
or any other sign. The objections are innu- 
merable and often trivial. Some will sell Christ 
now for less than thirty pieces of silver. All 
such seeking is of no avail. The unchangeable 
terms are unconditional surrender, complete 
abandonment of one's self to the will of God. 

Now, to tell one in this unsubmissive state of 
mind to believe is to endanger the soul. Real 
faith is impossible, and a substitute for faith 
may be intellectual assent to some passage of 
Scripture or inference drawn therefrom. Al- 
most invariably the soul that lacks assurance 



WHA T ARE THE CONDITIONS ? g? 

has not surrendered. The difficulty can be 
detected by close cross-questioning. When 
full submission is reached, the exercise of faith 
will be as natural and easy as breathing. Faith 
is spontaneous to the obedient soul. 

Indeed, this entire self-abandonment is with 
most persons not to be distinguished from 
the exercise of faith. It is a committal or 
deposit of the soul with God, and is itself 
the highest expression of faith, since one will 
never unconditionally submit to a person in 
whom he has no confidence. An outward 
submission may be induced by fear, but the 
real inward submission of the heart must be 
based on confidence. Hence the last item of 
surrender often marks the transitional point 
from darkness to light, from doubt to cer- 
tainty. This is almost always the case with 
young people who have been religiously 
trained. At this point above all others the 
winner of souls must be wise. Press the 
seeker with searching truth till no doubt 
remains in the mind of the seeker himself 
about the completeness of his surrender. 
To fail here is to lose all. 



98 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

With some the chief difficulty is the ex- 
ercise of faith. Such have been trying to 
save themselves by good resolves and works 
of righteousness. Sometimes a conscientious 
heathen is found practising penances and 
making pilgrimages in order to arrive at 
assurance of pardon. To such a one Christ 
is preached as the only Saviour from sin, and 
accepting Him by faith he realizes at once 
the witness of the Spirit. He already had 
the spirit of complete obedience to the will 
of God, and, like the Philippian jailer, did not 
need to be told to repent. So in Christian 
lands one burdened with the guilt of sin 
may submit fully to God, and still have 
doubts about His willingness to pardon such 
a sinner as he. Such a one must be ex- 
horted to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ/' 
to abandon himself to God's mercy and grace 
as revealed in the gift of His Son. Such 
faith is not mere intellectual assent to prom- 
ises, but personal confidence in the Promiser. 
Genuine faith ultimately rests in the personal 
character of God. Because He is holy, faith- 



WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS? 99 

ful, just, merciful, and loving, therefore He will 
forgive sin and save to the uttermost. 

" Have faith in God." Lovingly, obediently 
trust Him. Even one who has never heard of 
Christ may believe in God unto the salvation 
of his soul. All one needs to know in order 
to be saved is, — 

1. That he is a sinner. 

2. That God can and will forgive sin. 

The heathen know the first full well ; though 
sin, by means of the express commandment of 
God, has not yet become exceeding sinful. 
The second proposition they are led to believe 
by religious instincts, and hence their sacrifices 
and prayers. It assists faith mightily to know 
that God has revealed His mercy and love in 
the person of His only begotten Son, and hence 
it becomes our duty and privilege to send the 
Gospel to the ends of the earth. Yet those 
heathen who " fear God and work righteous- 
ness," who cry out for mercy in their compara- 
tive darkness, hear the response of God in the 
soul, and realize in some degree of clearness 



100 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

the witness of the Spirit. Our missionaries 
are confirming these statements with wonder- 
ful illustrations of salvation in the heathen 
world. Our heavenly Father seeks all his lost 
children, and leaves no one without hope and 
light sufficient to render his neglect of salva- 
tion inexcusable. 

We do well to remember that orthodoxy is 
not essential to personal salvation. Even one 
who has an erroneous conception of the person 
and office-work of Christ may still be assisted 
in the exercise of saving faith by contemplat- 
ing the life, death, and character of Jesus. 
He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour. 1 
Accept Him as such, and settle your theology 
afterwards. We have need to be very chari- 
table, because all the saved cannot arrive at the 
same theological conclusions. " Is thy heart 
as mine ? If so, give me thy hand." 

An observer turns his telescope to the skies 
to find some star which an astronomer has told 
him is hidden in the depths of space. He 
points the instrument in the direction indicated 

1 Acts v. 31. 



WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS? 101 

by the latitude and longitude of the astronomi- 
cal chart. He searches a long time without 
finding the star. At last the axis of the tele- 
scope becomes coincident with the ray of light 
streaming from the distant orb, and straight- 
way the shining star is photographed in the 
chamber of his soul. So when the telescope 
of faith is completely adjusted to the divine 
will, assisted by the revelations of the Chart, 
light streams down from the skies, and the 
Day-star arises in the heart. Then knowledge 
blends with faith. 



IX. 

THE ABIDING WITNESS. 



IX. 

THE ABIDING WITNESS. 

So much stress has been laid by many upon 
the witness of the Spirit to our spirit at the 
time of forgiveness and adoption, that they have 
failed to emphasize sufficiently the importance 
of the constant witnessing of the Spirit with 
our spirit all along the Christian's journey. 
Many are looking back for the evidence of their 
salvation to an experience attained years ago. 
It is not strange that the moment of transition 
from condemnation to peace should never be 
forgotten. The contrast was then more vivid 
than ever it could be subsequently. Still, it 
is the Christian's privilege to grow in grace 
and to realize more and more divine communion. 
The evidence of his present salvation may 
every day become more full and satisfying. 
Amid all changes, inward and outward, and 
eddying whirls of temptation and strife, the 

105 



106 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

undercurrent of peace and assurance should 
roll on, ever growing deeper and stronger. 
Some have taught that the witness of the 
Spirit is intermittent. It is to be feared that 
too often this is true in fact, yet it need not 
be so. Many testify that the witness has been 
uninterrupted for many years. We recall the 
testimony of an aged preacher, that for forty 
years, since the moment of his conversion, he 
had not been without the direct witness of the 
Spirit. This accords with the scriptural rep- 
resentation of the witness as a seal that cannot 
be broken except by sin ; as an earnest or 
pledge to be retained till full payment of the 
inheritance. 

" In the last day, that great day of the feast, 
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, 
let him come unto me, and drink. He that 
believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, 
out of his inmost soul [as the seraphic Fletcher 
well rendered it] shall flow rivers of living 
water." After half a century of experience 
and reflection John added his comment, " But 
this spake He of the Spirit, which they that 



THE ABIDING WITNESS. 107 

believe on Him should receive : for the Holy- 
Ghost was not yet given ; because that Jesus was 
not yet glorified." The Holy Spirit in the soul 
is a perennial spring, sending forth continually 
life-giving streams. Its waters refresh the soul 
itself. The mighty river, biggest at the foun- 
tain head, clear as crystal, proceeding from the 
throne of God and of the Lamb, appears in the 
vision of Ezekiel l issuing from the earthly 
sanctuary as a rill, and flowing down by the 
south side of the altar, where it mingles with 
sacrificial blood. The stream grows till it be- 
comes " waters to swim in, a river that could 
not be passed over." Wherever it flows, it 
transforms death into life. It springs up in 
every believer's heart, and flows forth with 
similar results. It returns unto God in ador- 
ing love, just as descending rain mounts again 
to the skies. 

"That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the 
fountain.' 7 

It is said that on that last day of the feast 
the High Priest took a golden pitcher and, 

1 Ezek. xlvii. 1-12. 



108 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

attended by a procession of priests, singers, 
and musicians, went to the pool of Siloam. 
He filled his pitcher, and returned with music 
and demonstrations of joy, to pour out the 
water at the south side of the altar. The pro- 
cession was called "the joy of the waters ;" 
and a Jewish proverb said, " He who has not 
seen the joy of the waters knows not what 
rejoicing is." The proverb is still truer if 
applied to those who know the joy of the Lord. 
A glad procession is marching upward to the 
New Jerusalem with songs and everlasting joy 
upon their heads and in their hearts. 

Why could not the Holy Spirit in His ful- 
ness be given till after the glorification of 
Jesus ? Was the intercession of the Godman 
necessary to obtain it ? Was it the reward of 
His finished work, which He at once outpoured 
upon His followers? 

The Holy Spirit works through the instru- 
mentality of truth. Where little truth is known, 
but small blessing can be afforded. The hea- 
then sit in darkness, and can have but little 
joy. The Spirit does for the devout, consci- 



THE ABIDING WITNESS. IO9 

entious heathen all He can, whispering approval 
and hope, like the daimon in the breast of 
Socrates. The old Hebrews had the oracles 
of God, and so the Spirit could be given unto 
them in larger measure. They knew the secret 
of Jehovah, and the "joy of His salvation. " 
So the Psalmist prays, "Take not thy Holy 
Spirit from me." The prophets looked forward 
to the time when the Spirit should be poured 
upon us from on high. Those who knew most 
of divine truth lived experimentally in advance 
of their dispensation. But when Christ came 
with floods of living light, when through His 
life, death, resurrection, and ascension the plan 
of salvation had been revealed unto men, when 
life and immortality had been brought to light 
through the gospel, then the Holy Spirit had, 
so to speak, such a leverage of truth in the 
human soul as was scarcely before dreamed of. 
Then through this fulness of truth He could 
stir the depths of the soul, arouse and intensify 
every holy emotion, call into exercise every 
power of the mind for the interpretation of the 
truth, and thus "baptize with the Holy Ghost." 



IIO THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

Never before could He take the things of 
Christ and show them unto men ; and so never 
before could He produce the fulness of love, joy, 
peace, and filial confidence. It is the truth as 
it is in Jesus that has made the gift of the 
Comforter possible. Is not this the reason why 
those who believe not the truths concerning 
Christ fail to receive the fulness of the Spirit ? 
Is not this why the Comforter must be sought 
in Jesus' name ? And is not the power of the 
Spirit most manifested in individual believers, 
and in the congregation, when their attention 
is drawn to the great truths concerning our 
Redeemer ? 

The Holy Spirit is always present in the con- 
science to convince the world of sin. That 
conviction is deepened, intensified, when the 
sinner turns his thought to holy truth, and es- 
pecially when he gazes at Calvary. Thus con- 
viction is constant, yet more keenly felt at times 
of serious thought. In like manner the wit- 
nessing Spirit dwells constantly in believers, 
and manifests His presence always, at least in 
freedom from condemnation and fear. With in- 



THE ABIDING WITNESS. Ill 

creasing knowledge of the truth, and prayerful 
meditation upon it, assurance becomes clearer, 
and the fruit of the Spirit more abundant. And 
when the greatest truths are firmly grasped in 
faith, then one must, in harmony with spiritual 
law, be " filled" or " baptized" with the Holy 
Spirit. On the occasion of every baptism of 
the Spirit mentioned in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, prayer was being offered in the name of 
Jesus, or truth concerning Him was being pro- 
claimed. If this spiritual law be rightly stated, 
then, when one grasps the promise of purity of 
heart through the blood of Jesus, there would 
naturally be expected the witness of the Spirit 
thereto with special clearness ; and this is the 
general testimony of saints in all ages. To 
make the baptism of the Spirit synonymous 
with perfect purity of heart, or to say that one 
baptized with the Spirit is thereby and always 
entirely sanctified, is a proposition we have long 
distrusted. The Spirit bears witness to truth, 
and a powerful manifestation of His presence 
and indwelling may accompany other truth as 
well. We are not necessitated to infer that 



112 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

the three thousand who certainly received the 
baptism of the Spirit with the baptism of water 
on the day of Pentecost were entirely sancti- 
fied. Many are wonderfully baptized with the 
Spirit at their conversion, and many times 
thereafter the baptism is and should be re- 
newed. It is an intensification of the abiding 
witness of the Spirit. 

We are thus led to see how special manifes- 
tations of divine grace may always be obtained. 
We cannot, however, reduce to law all the oper- 
ations of the Spirit in the individual conscious- 
ness. He divideth to every one severally as He 
will. He giveth not account of all His matters. 
Special conviction often seizes suddenly upon 
sinners in unexpected moments, as in the case of 
St. Paul. The witness of the Spirit flashes out 
in the consciousness of believers in moments of 
special need. The power of God falls upon an 
individual or a congregation, or sweeps through 
a community in a great revival, and we cannot 
always tell the law of its working. We have to 
say, This is a miracle of grace, or this is special 
answer to prayer. Further study of His works 



THE ABIDING WITNESS. 1 1 3 

and ways may find out the laws that govern ex- 
traordinary and miraculous manifestations of 
His power in the soul, but they have not yet 
been enunciated, so far as we can learn. We 
know Him only in part, but God be praised that 
we do know Him. 

The Spirit testifies of present, not of future 
salvation. The convert is still in a state of 
probation. While the witness of the Spirit is 
clear, the soul has the full assurance of hope, 
and feels sure of eternal salvation ; but the wit- 
ness may be lost, and then the hope vanishes, 
or becomes a human hope mixed with doubts 
and fears, instead of a divine conviction. The 
comforting presence of the Spirit in the soul 
gives a foretaste of Paradise ; but as the celestial 
and the terrestrial Paradise have both been lost 
by sin, so every Christian may lose his heavenly 
inheritance. Such a loss is possible and some- 
times, it appears, actual. Some who have ex- 
perienced a most wonderful conversion and 
intimate communion with God have fallen into 
sin and vice, but their number is small. The 
fallen are generally those who have been ser- 



114 THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. 

vants rather than sons, who have not realized 
the joys of salvation, nor received the Holy 
Spirit. The soul that has once passed from 
darkness into light will not easily return to 
darkness. Still, it is important to attend to the 
warning of the apostle, " Let him that thinketh 
he standeth take heed lest he fall." By con- 
stant obedience and trustful prayer the witness 
may be retained continually. 

THE ABIDING COMFORTER. 



Priest. — " Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum." 
Response. — " Et cum spiritu tuo." — The Mass. 



Spirit divine, whom oft I've sadly grieved, 

Slighting Thy will, 
Be not my soul of pardoning love bereaved; 

Be patient still. 
Let me now hear Thy whisper kind and low; 
Thy gracious presence ever with me go. 

Spirit of love, so little loved in turn, 

Do not depart. 
In purifying flame forever burn; 

Baptize my heart. 
Thy presence is communion sweet and blest; 
Thy voice brings glad content and peaceful rest. 



THE ABIDING WITNESS. 115 

Spirit of purity and power and grace, 

Cleanse, fill, control. 
Be my unworthy heart Thy dwelling-place, 

Thy home my soul. 
To humble faith Thy peace is always given; 
Thy joy is bliss supreme; Thy love is Heaven. 



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